This is the blog of Eco-Vista | Brent Stephenson, a wildlife photographer, guide, and birder based near Napier, New Zealand. His wildlife, landscape, and people images can be discovered at his portfolio website.

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

A day amongst giants and fairies

We
were up a little later this morning after our nocturnal activities, and everyone
breakfasted and readied themselves for the day.A shining-bronze cuckoo calling nearby stirred everyone up, and running
around the accommodations all were alerted to the bird, which stayed put and
was seen well by everyone.

We
then headed north towards the beautiful Waipoua Forest, where we wound our way
between the kauri trees towards Tane Mahuta, ‘Lord of the Forest’.We wandered into the cool, mossy forest,
along the little boardwalk, and stood in front of this spectacular tree.There was not a lot of bird action around,
but there didn’t need to be.Standing in
awe in front of such a tree was enough.We snapped a few photos, then headed back out, finding some diminutive
greenhood orchids in flower, probably the kauri greenhood (Pterostylis agathicola).We
did hear more shining-bronze cuckoos calling, and spotted a grey warbler, but
it was time to head south again.

We
headed back through Dargaville and across to a small pond near Waipu.Pulling up we spotted a pair of New Zealand
dabchick on the pond, and then in another spot, a nest with two eggs
exposed.This was strange for a grebe,
but within a very short time, an Australasian little grebe snuck into the nest,
covered it with weed and then snuck away again – clearly the bird had been off
the nest when we arrived, perhaps just nearby, and our arrival caused enough
concern to cover the nest.We had
excellent views of the pair of Australasian little grebes coming in to the nest
to add extra material, and swimming around, and then departed to let them get
back on with incubation.

We
grabbed some lunch from a local bakery, again more pie crumbs hitting the
floor, before heading to a local spot to look for fairy tern.With binoculars in hand we sat and ate lunch
and then as we were nearing the end a fairy tern in breeding plumage flew
across in front of us.We had good views
but wanted more.We headed out to
search, and found some confiding variable oystercatchers, a few distant New
Zealand dotterels and a few other bits and pieces, and then the same fairy tern
flew right past us and landed nearby!It
bathed for a while and then preened nearby, giving fantastic views of this, New
Zealand’s rarest bird.Just 40 individuals
are left of this subspecies.We soaked
it all in, before heading away, seeing another bird fly over the neighbouring
fields, obviously heading to another waterway.That is 2 birds out of 40!A
little way along the road, three cattle egret were a surprise!

We
headed south along the coast, making a stop for a very confiding New Zealand
dotterel, who allowed a close encounter, and then headed to a local reserve
area to see what we could find.Firstly,
a family of mum, dad and four duckling brown teal made a nice appearance, and
then some nice confiding Paradise shelducks, pukekos, and our first bellbirds
of the trip.A single kaka flew high
overhead, first one way and then back the other…clearly it couldn’t make up its
mind!We then chased around a few
kingfishers, Eastern rosellas, and found a confiding New Zealand pigeon feeding
on leaves.

However,
it was soon time to head to the accommodation, quickly checkin and then head
off out for dinner, having worked up a pretty good appetite!

Day
total – Seen = 48 + 2 heard (Cook’s petrel, greenfinch); new for the trip = 13;
total for the trip to date = 63